Just the other day, Jane’s published a photo showing the fourth generation J-10B fighter equipped with a version of the WS-10 engine with a controlled thrust vector (UHT). The car was photographed in Zhuhai, before the AirShow China 2018 exhibition. The creation of such an engine is undoubtedly a significant, but far from the most important achievement of the Chinese defense industry. The general level of technology of the Celestial Empire allows us to make an assumption that in the foreseeable future, the Chinese Air Force will occupy the second place in the world in terms of overall potential. Both tactical and strategic. Specifically, today I would like to consider the capabilities of Chinese fighters.
In the "dry" residue
The huge fleet of copies of Soviet cars, left after the "effective leaders" of the Cold War, had to be urgently changed in the 90s. Chengdu J-7 (a copy of the MiG-21) looked bad against the background of the Su-30 and F-18. Having reasoned wisely, the Chinese have focused on cooperation with Russia. Whether she lost or gained from this is another question. But the Chinese were definitely in positive territory. For a modest price, they received a total of more than 200 Su-27 fighters, proudly named Shenyang J-11. Its basic version, assembled from Russian components, is identical to the Su-27SK, which, in turn, hardly differs from the Soviet Su-27S. Since 1998, the Chinese have honestly assembled these cars under license, but then the strange metamorphoses of the 27th began. In the 2000s, the J-11B appeared with Chinese avionics. And already in 2010, information appeared that the Chinese media "buried" the Su-35. According to them, the Swedish experts conducted a simulation of air combat between the J-11B and the Su-35BM and were convinced of the "superiority of the Chinese machine."
If we recall China's problems in creating (or even copying) new Russian engines, then this looks at least strange. In general, the J-11 and its versions look quite modern technology by the standards of the Asia-Pacific region, although they are inferior to the Japanese F-2 and the F-35 entering service. It is known that the J-11B can carry modern and powerful PL-12 medium-range air-to-air missiles with an active radar homing head. Recall that the Russian Aerospace Forces have only recently begun to receive such missiles: experts have previously seen something similar to the R-77 on the Su-35S aircraft arriving in Syria. But there is every reason to doubt that such products have supplanted the old and long-ineffective R-27R / ER in the Russian Air Force. There have been almost no cases of close air combat over the past decades, so we will not discuss Chinese short-range missiles.
Separately, let's put in a word for a miniature (by Chinese standards) batch of Russian Su-35s of 24 vehicles. It would be more correct to call their sale to the PRC a surrender of national interests. You can be 100 percent sure that China bought the aircraft for only one purpose: to copy the AL-41F1S engine installed on the Sushka (not to be confused with the AL-41F1, which is installed on the Su-57). By the way, this is far from a miracle of technology, but the development of the old AL-31F. But the Chinese don't have that either. Or not until now.
Jewish Chinese: the backbone of the Air Force
The history of the creation of Chengdu J-10 could form the basis of some crazy Asian thriller. Let's start with the fact that it is very long and there are many characters in it. The specialists of TsAGI and the MiG Design Bureau, and, of course, the Israelis with the Lavi sent to the dustbin of history, directly or indirectly applied forces to the creation of the machine. For some reason, many people think that since China has borrowed a number of technologies, the J-10 is "bad" by default. This is not true. Firstly, this aircraft, with some reservations, can still be called a Chinese design, since it is a compilation of ideas, and not a completely stolen design. Secondly, it has evolved from the J-10A to the J-10C, which is close to the fifth generation in many respects. And thirdly, China has already produced more than 300 of these machines, which is a lot by modern standards.
We know from open sources that about 50 of this number are of the J-10B version. It is a very serious vehicle with an AFAR radar, an "inconspicuous" air intake, a modern forward-looking optical station and a new WS-10A engine. Just for comparison: now in the Russian Air Force there is not a single fighter aircraft that has radar with AFAR. In such conditions, it is no longer important who copied from whom and when. After all, for a modern fighter aircraft, onboard electronics is a key parameter. More important, perhaps, is only inconspicuousness, provided that it works properly. By the way, the newest J-10C was designed to be as unobtrusive as possible. According to reports, he took up combat duty in 2018.
"Invisibles" are eager to fight
Separately, it is worth talking about the Chinese fifth-generation fighter J-20, which, according to the Chinese media, was adopted back in 2017. There is every reason to believe that the plane is too "raw" to be effectively used in combat against a more or less powerful enemy. However, here, too, there are facts that are unpleasant for the Chinese neighbors.
The most important thing is that the J-20, which first took to the skies after the PAK FA, bypassed it greatly in terms of development. The Chinese Air Force, at the very least, operates at least a few of these machines. The Russians are just waiting for the first stage of the Su-57. China's engine problems are well known, but they don't seem critical. Exactly as the presence of the front horizontal tail of the J-20, which, of course, can worsen stealth, but not as critical as it seems to some. Otherwise, the engineers of the PRC would not have chosen such an aerodynamic scheme at all.
The Celestial Empire will slowly, step by step, eliminate the problems of the aircraft, endowing it with ever new combat qualities. An interesting solution is a stealth optical location station in the lower part of the fuselage, which in theory can be effectively used both for searching for air targets and for surveying the ground. For comparison, the prototype Su-57 - T-50-5R - recently proudly adorned a 101KS-N suspended sighting container. To put it mildly, not conducive to stealth.
In general, as we noted at the beginning of the article, China's progress in the development of fighter aircraft is felt too well, and it is not only naive, but also stupid to turn a blind eye to it. It should also be noted that Chinese gunsmiths claim the same part of the world arms market as the CIS countries. That is, for not very rich states of the so-called. third world. Who do not even think about buying an F-35 or Su-57 and who are quite happy with the J-10.
